Deep-subwavelength Guiding and Superfocusing of Spoof Surface Plasmon Polaritons on Helically Grooved Metal Wire

Deep-subwavelength guiding and superfocusing of spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SSPPs) realized on a helically grooved metal wire at microwave frequencies are presented in this paper. Two smooth bridges with gradient helical grooves decorated on the cylindrical and conical metal wire are proposed and designed, respectively. High-efficiency and broadband mode conversion from the traditional guided waves to the SSPPs and superfocusing of SSPPs are reported. Numerical simulations quantitatively show that the amplitudes of electric field at the tip of the conical wire with gradient helical grooves can be magnified 50 times more than that of the input signal in broadband. Moreover, the second transition structure ensures that the depth of helical groove can be tuned flexibly and arbitrarily, making it compatible with all kinds of N-type coaxial connectors. Strong field concentration and superfocusing of these two structures can be easily extended to terahertz (THz) frequencies by tuning the geometrical parameters and can find important applications in sensing, spectroscopy and near-field imaging in the microwave and THz frequencies.

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